19th Nervous Breakdown? No, just a bad hair day for Mick. Although the Stones had made a magnificant leap of 21 places up the Big L Fab 40, they were still being outdone in the songwriting stakes by Lennon and McCartney. Two versions of 'Girl' held #11, two recordings of 'Michelle' were at #26 and 'Woman' – which is credited to 'Harry Webb', a name Paul McCartney purloined from Cliff Richard – was new in at #37. Even Cilla's #20 had 'Yesterday' on its B-side!

Dusty's 'Little by Little' is not the 1964 B-side of 'Not Fade Away' written by Jagger/Richards. Dusty's 'Little by Little' was penned by Buddy Kaye and Bea Verdi, who also co-wrote her '65 success, 'In the Middle of Nowhere'.

On February 15th at Wycombe Town Hall, the Knees Club signed up the Fortunes: Rod Allen (#86), Andy Brown (#87), Barry Pritchard, (#88) Glen Dale, (#89) and Dave Carr, (#90). This Golden Ring was not only on its way up The Fab Forty, but also the Nationals.

Peter Fenton & the Crowd, the Fortunes' support group, was also recruited to the KC. Backing vocalist Peter Fenton(#81), were Mike Jones (#82), Mick Maloney (#83), Nick Man (#84) and Ian Green (#85).

Peter Fenton was obliged to wait till October '66 to gain a solo chart entry with Marble Breaks, Iron Bends, the song adopted as a theme by Big L DJ Pete 'Dum Dum' Drummond (#37).

My Knees Club notes indicate that the Crowd released a single called Last Taxi to Brooklyn which failed to chart. Where I obtained this information, I do not know and I can find no more about it! A singer called Ian Green issued a solo single in '67 called Last Pink Rose and made recordings as Ian Green Revolution with Rosetta Hightower and Madeline Bell. However, it is unknown if this was the same Ian Green as our Knees Club member.

The two Fontana singles by Birmingham band Craig, (the second being I Must Be Mad) are highly collectable. A copy of A Little Bit of Soap was spotted for sale in February 2006 with an asking price of £200!

The reason for Craig's collectability, is the band's drummer, Carl Palmer, later of prog-rock superstars, Emerson, Lake & Palmer. The other members were lead vocalist Jeff Brown, Richard King, guitar, and Len Cox, bass.

According to Carl's official website, the band was called the King Bees when he joined at the age of 15, in 1965. At what stage the name changed to Craig and the reasoning behind the moniker, is not revealed. Both Craig singles came out in 1966 and Carl was not with the band for long, as he shifted his sticks to Chris Farlowe and the Thunderbirds at the age of 16. Another member of Craig has been listed elsewhere as Richard Pannell. As the name is not mentioned by Carl, Richard possibly joined the line-up after he left.

In 1968, Jeff Brown became vocalist with Galliard, which according to alexgitlin.com also included Richard Pannell. The site has a photo of six musicians from the 12-piece line-up, although individual members are not identified.

My favourite source of information on the net concerning Craig, is a page from a Spanish website, which Google has kindly translated into 'English' for our edification. This reveals that the singles were produced by Larry Page and describes Len Cox as a bear! The title of the single I Must Be Mad translates poetically into, 'I must be airborne magnetic detection'. Airborne Magnetic Detection sounds like a very good name for a heavy metal outfit!

(Click on the picture for an Amazon link to information about the Record Collector Rare Record Price Guide)